Overview

This course provides an introduction to the principles and practice of system and network security with a focus on both fundamentals and practical information. The three key topics of this course are cryptography, system and network security, and protecting information technology resources. Subtopics include ciphers, key exchange, security services (integrity, availability, confidentiality, etc.), system, network, and web based security attacks, vulnerabilities, exploits, countermeasures and responses. Students will complete several lab assignments experimenting with security countermeasures.

For each class students are expected to thoroughly study the assigned readings (if any).
Grading is done based on these items:

In-class quizzes: An undisclosed number of short quizzes will be taken at the end of some of the lectures without prior notice! Make sure to attend lectures and pay attention!
If you are not able to attend a lecture, you should email the instructor at latest 10 minutes after the class has started. You can not miss more
than three classes during the semester.

Homework assignments: There will be four homework assignments, which
will include coding assignments as well.

Exams: There will be two midterm exams and a final exam.

Presentations: This is ONLY for grad students enrolled in 579N. Students will work with the instructor to choose a research topic, which will be presented in class at the end of semester.

Course Section

460

597N

In-class quizzes

10%

10%

Homeworks

30%

20%

Midterm Exam 1 ***

30%

25%

Midterm Exam 2 ***

30%

25%

Final Exam ***

30%

25%

Presentation

10% (optional)

20%

*** Only two exams will be used in calculating your grade. If you do not take the final exam, we will use midterm 1 and midterm 2. If you use the final exam, we will you your final exam + your best midterm grade.

Prerequisites

CMPSCI 377 and familiarity with Unix! CMPSCI460 is for CICS undergraduate students, and CMPSCI597N is for CICS graduate students.

Ethics

Here are some of the ethical rules that must be practiced by the students. If you are uncertain about an action being ethical please contact the instructor. You can also read UMass's Academic Honesty Policy.

Paper reviews must be prepared independently. Students may collaborate on the project if agreed by the instructor.

Presentation slides may be borrowed from others (e.g., authors of the papers), given proper acknowledgement.

As a general rule, students are not permitted to submit the same work for credit in multiple courses (e.g., a project submitted for another course, or an already published paper). Extensions to previous projects may be accepted after discussing with the instructor.

Plagiarism is a serious crime! If you use someone else's result in your report make sure to give proper reference. Exact wording should be reported inside quotation marks.